Banned test player Shantakumaran Sreesanth and two other prominent cricketers will not face charges of spot-fixing due to a lack of evidence, an Indian court ruled on Saturday.
A New Delhi court hearing was considering charges of organized crime against the three Indian players who were alleged to have underperformed in exchange for money from illegal bookmakers during the Indian Premier League in 2013.
The court said the police could not present enough prima facie proof for the charges.
Pace bowler Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, who were jailed for almost a month in 2013, are banned for life by the Board of Control for Cricket in India over the same accusations.
The BCCI said their bans remain.
"Any disciplinary proceeding or decision taken by the BCCI is independent to any ?criminal ?proceeding and has no bearing," the board said in a statement. "The decisions of the BCCI, based on its independent disciplinary action, shall remain unaltered."
The 32-year-old Sreesanth, who broke down when judge Neena Bansal Krishna announced that "all had been discharged," said he held no grudge against anyone.
"I always believed in God and our judicial system," Sreesanth told reporters. "Cricket is my life and I'm hoping to be given access to cricket facilities so that I can try and make a comeback to the game."
Sreesanth, who has played 27 tests, 53 one-day internationals and 10 T20 internationals, said it was the "worst thing that could happen" to a cricketer.
"To see a cricket ground and not be able to practice there was horrible. I went through a lot of things but all that is the past now," said Sreesanth, who was part of the squads that won the 2011 World Cup and the 2007 World T20 championship.
All 36 accused in the case, including several alleged bookies, were discharged by the court.
The police had referred to telephone conversations among the accused and also produced call detail records to link the three players with alleged bookmakers but the court ruled the evidence was not enough to bring them to trial.
The prosecution had also sought more time to study a report of the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Rajendra Lodha committee which earlier this month announced life bans on two IPL team franchise officials, but the court did not agree.
This report said Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan and Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra were banned for being in touch with bookmakers and for betting on IPL matches.
Meiyappan is the son-in-law of International Cricket Council chairman Narainaswamy Srinivasan, whose company India Cements owns the Chennai team.
The Chennai and Rajasthan teams have also been handed two-year suspensions.
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